E-Learning case study: full service for modern online learning programs

The trend towards internal training is clearly recognizable – investment in the field of in-house training has been increasing since 2013. But even big names who shape their respective markets need support in internationalizing their in-house training programs. In a comprehensive project, KERN Global Language Services was able to demonstrate how you can use Articulate Storyline to offer complete customer support from one source to enable highly modern in-house training to take place.

Digitalization is booming and this means that the competition for highly-trained personnel is hot as well. Alongside winning over specialist employees, market leaders are placing their business resources into in-house training for their employees in an attempt to solve this problem. What’s important here is to use the options provided by modern training programs as efficiently as possible in order to successfully compete with other market participants in the long run.

A global food manufacturer that follows this credo therefore decided to use the modern online tool Articulate Storyline to carry out their in-house training in an effective and economically viable manner. Users can create an attractive e-learning program that guarantees quick and sustainable learning successes with Storyline. This is achieved with its variety of multi-method learning approaches such as embedded videos, animations or interactive elements, various ways to test the participant’s knowledge and many other functions.

As part of the internationalization of the new training program, the company, which has over 300,000 employees contacted KERN Global Language Services and commissioned the translation of the learning modules into 10 foreign languages. Several of these languages were global languages, including Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai and other Asian languages.

Everything from one source

The variety of functions of Articulate Storyline also led to challenges for KERN Global Language Services as a service provider. The customer wanted the whole project to be dealt with by one company. This meant that all the processes had to be covered by KERN, from the translation into all the languages, video editing and rendering, terminology management and multilingual DTP. What’s more, the staff needed to have a good knowledge of Storyline. The ability to include all these processes in a transparent, interdependent workflow and not processing them as individual tasks meant that KERN was able to provide the project with desperately-needed structure and meant that we were able to guarantee that time and quality goals were met.

Quality assurance through intelligent workflow design

In light of the special goals of the project, the workflow had two features specific to the customer. After the terminology database was constructed (taking into account the customer’s corporate identity) and the modules had been initially translated, an early round of multilingual desktop publishing work was carried out. This meant that the customer could assess text, graphics, videos and animations to make sure their later function would be fulfilled. They were able to do this whilst viewing them in a version close to the final design and were able to assess whether the company’s internal language was being used appropriately. It is especially practical to be able to carry out the review process in such a context-relevant manner, particularly for interactive elements.

On top of that, we were able to work more efficiently in terms of time due to the fact that we carried out processes that were independent of each other in parallel. The first voice samples were recorded during the review process and when the first DTP work was being done. This meant that a wide range of recordings was available when the rendered clips were delivered at a later point. Being able to choose from a variety of different voice samples and the flawless way in which the final phase of the project was carried out led to a high level of customer satisfaction. This has already led to us carrying out further projects together. Translation projects such as this one continue to show that full-service provision always brings with it challenges that require an intelligent and structured method of working. The close cooperation with the customer and the focus on their individual requirements means that KERN Global Language Services can develop workflow designs that create a synergy effect and that are able to cope with the challenges of multimedia environments. This also means that we can successfully and consistently carry out projects with modern software such as Articulate Storyline in a risk-free manner.